Laure Pigeon (1882-1965) is one of the leading figures in Art Brut (Outsider Art), along with Aloļse Corbaz and Adolf Wölfli. The Collection de lArt Brut in Lausanne probably possesses her entire oeuvre, amounting to over 400 works, including writings, notebooks, small-scale drawings and an extensive series of large compositions in blue ink. These are all part of the corpus of works acquired by Jean Dubuffet, the historic collection around which the museum was founded.
In 1978, the Collection de lArt Brut held the first and only monographic exhibition dedicated to this artist. A new exhibition in 2025 has now been devoted to her exclusively. It offers a representative selection of her striking graphic work, spanning a period of 30 years.
Like Madge Gill, Jeanne Tripier, Augustin Lesage and Raphaėl Lonné, Laure Pigeon too was a member of the spiritualist fraternity men and women who feel selected to receive messages from the hereafter and claim the deceased are responsible for their creations. The spiritualists hand is therefore guided and merely executes what the spirits dictate.
The catalogue, in French and English, includes essays by several authors and a large number of colour illustrations.
Text in English and French.
Anic Zanzi has been a curator at the Collection de lArt Brut since 2003. An art historian with a degree in Public Relations, she is in charge of editing the various works published by the institution and organises exhibitions, such as People (2016), Henriette Zéphir (2017), Ernst Kolb (2018), Carlo Zinelli, recto verso (2019) and Michel Nedjar (2023), as well as two Art Brut biennials, Véhicules (2013) and Croyances (2022). Flavie Beuvin is a visual artist with a degree in Art and Aesthetics. Her art and theoretical work focus on the echoes between the creating body and the body of the work. The concept of vegetality, which she developed as part of her academic research and published by Presses Universitaires du Septentrion as Végétalité, Art Brut et féminins, lies at the heart of her aesthetics. She is also extremely keen on drawing, combining it with various other media, such as embroidery and collage. Vānia Freitas holds a BA in Conservation-Restoration from the Haute École Arc in Neuchātel. She is currently pursuing a masters degree in Museum Studies at the University of Neuchātel. She has gained experience in preventive conservation through periods spent in various other institutions, notably the Cinémathčque suisse research centre and Maison dAilleurs. Vānia also spent time at the Collection de lArt Brut from 2023 to 2024, working mainly on Laure Pigeons oeuvre.
